Your results with Lee boolits in the 30-06

[Marlin Junky]

I have a 309-170-F 2 cavity, it measures .3015 on the nose and .311 on the bands. I haven't done any accuracy testing with it yet however, 2 of my sons have 30-06 rifles, I don't have a 30 cal.

I bought the mold to load for them.

Moonie,

What are the bearing and overall lengths of c309-170?

Thanks,
MJ

[HangFireW8]

Sized down to .310", even?

Is there anyway one of you guys with a c312-185 can post a pic of what this boolit looks like (w/o lube) sized all the way down to .310".

Sized without lube first (so bands grew in width), but pictured lubed:

[Marlin Junky]

Looks like the bands on that center boolit are closing up. Have you ever weighed one with and w/o lube to determine how much lube the .310" boolits hold?

MJ

[HangFireW8]

Looks like the bands on that center boolit are closing up. Have you ever weighed one with and w/o lube to determine how much lube the .310" boolits hold?

MJ,

You're making me work for this, huh?

I just weighed one at 186.3 lubed, and 185.9 with lube wiped out of grooves.

The lube is a mix of SPG and NRA 50/50, simply because I refilled with 50/50 once I ran out of SPG. Out of a 20" barrel with 12.8 grains of Red Dot, there was zero leading, and the barrel cleaned up easily.

A few boolits with heavy casting seams look like they are closing up just on the seam, but none closed up to touching, and most are not like that at all. The boolit I just weighed, for example, I cannot find any evidence of band size difference near the seam.

I think I have to work a little more on consistent mold close pressure.

-HF

[Recluse]

I size my 185 gr boolits down by step-sizing.

Size it and install the gas check through a .312, then a .311 then down to a .310, then in the lubesizer in a .309 for a lube-only process.

Never had any trouble with the bands closing up or deteriorating.

[Marlin Junky]

The c309-160-R shot pretty crummy today with 25 grains of IMR-4198. Velocity was 1843 fps and I was really surprised the best I could do was a shade under 1.5" at 75 yards for five rounds. Could be it was too cold for my BAC/Soft Blue mixture but that's just a WAG. Boolits were BHN 16, again. 20 grains of WC-820 shot pretty darn good (at 1861 fps) just a few weeks ago, but just a few weeks ago it was a lot warmer.

I think I'm going to try c312-185-R.

MJ

[tactikel]

Your bullet cast from hardball (from rotometals) over 16 gr of 2400 will shoot 0.5" groups at 50 yards from my '03-A3 2 groove. Rx7 25-30 gr is very accurate at 100 yards giving 2.5 MOA (using GI sights).

[Marlin Junky]

Your bullet cast from hardball (from rotometals) over 16 gr of 2400 will shoot 0.5" groups at 50 yards from my '03-A3 2 groove. Rx7 25-30 gr is very accurate at 100 yards giving 2.5 MOA (using GI sights).

Yeah, I figure next week I'd try another grain of my IMR 4198. I checked the BHN of your "Hardball" from Rotometals and it's 16 which is what I'm shooting.

MJ

[Tom W.]

How Much 3031?

42 grains. I was using it to fireform my brass for the A.I. and found out it was very accurate out to 200 yards, which is as long as the rifle range is.

[Marlin Junky]

Another grain of IMR-4198 didn't make much difference, so I'll bump it up to 27 grains on Wednesday which'll exhaust my supply of IMR-4198. This'll push c309-160-R over 2000 fps so it should be interesting to see what happens. Alloy will be 50/50 (WW/Pb) heat treated to BHN 16.

MJ

[NHlever]

I have the Lee C-309-150F and it has shot very well in the 30-30's, 308's, and 30-06's I've tried it in. I haven't had a 30-06 for a while but have shot that boolit in more than one. My loads have generally been on the light side, but I have pushed it a bit with good results.
+- 2000 FPS.

[afrance]

P.S. Can anyone post the bearing and overall lengths on 309-150 and 309-170?

My 309-170 (single cavity) is .980 long with a bearing length of .505 and sized to .310 with Darr lube weighs ~177.5 grains with WW.

On a side note, my 309-200 (double cavity) is 1.135 long with a bearing length of .490 weighing ~203 grains with WW. So far I have only used it with subsonic loads in the 30-06 so I can't report on it at 2000 fps but with the higher BC I would think you could match the 2000 fps trajectory of the 150gr or 160gr somewhere in the 1850 - 1875 fps range.

Alan

[Marlin Junky]

...but with the higher BC I would think you could match the 2000 fps trajectory of the 150gr or 160gr somewhere in the 1850 - 1875 fps range.

Alan

afrance,

It could very well work out that way; however, I'm going to stick with at least 50% bearing surface for now.

Thank you for the spec's on c309-170.

MJ